The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria has unveiled its operational manual with a promise that the document will help its members to comply with the regulator’s requirements.

The President, ABCON, Mr. Aminu Gwadabe, said at the presentation of the manual in Lagos, that the initiative was an indication that the association was committed to its partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria in achieving the goal of an orderly and stable foreign exchange market, where operations are guided by the rules.

According to him, the BDCs have a critical role in ensuring fairness and achieving the overall goal of a stable foreign exchange.

He reminded members that the “BDC is a non-bank corporate body licensed as such by the CBN to buy and sell foreign currency in accordance with the provisions of the foreign exchange Act of 1995.”

Hence, he said the association would continue to demonstrate zero tolerance to non-compliance by operators to guiding rules.

The ABCON chairman also said that since the foreign exchange market liberalisation policy in 2006, the BDC subsector had witnessed an influx of investors, leading to an increase in the number of BDC companies from 300 to about 3,000 currently.

He said, “The manual, website and our logo demonstrate our commitment to training and retraining of the BDCs. It will also serve as a guide in enabling us to perform the role of a self- regulatory organisation conveyed on the association by the CBN.

“We have the mandate to ensure uniform standards of operations and quality of services across the subsector. This is also an effort to continuously partnering with the CBN to achieve an orderly and stable foreign exchange market which is critical to economic growth. But more importantly, the manual implies that, henceforth, there will no longer be excuse for not doing the right thing or not playing by the rules.”

He, however, emphasised that the whole initiative represented part of the efforts of ABCON to enhance capacity of members and boost the public confidence in doing business with the BDCs.

“The overall objective is to empower the BDCs to effectively play its role in the nation’s foreign exchange market as well as the economy. We are determined to provide quality services in compliance with the regulations,” he added.

The Deputy Director, Supervision Department, CBN, Mr. Yemi Pedro, commended ABCON’s efforts, noting that the initiative would help the association to keep watch on its members, thereby helping the CBN in effective database management.

He said about 3,500 licensed BDC operators were operating in the country.

He said, with the unveiling of the manual, there would be continuous adherence to all the details of the guidelines and, as such, enable the public to distinguish between licensed operators and illegal operators.

Source: Punch (by Oyetunji Abioye)